Early morning, on the bank of Baijiang River.

Several figures walked through the mist on the river and arrived in front of a courtyard facing the river.

One of the burly and muscular men came forward and knocked on the door, shouting: "Brother."

No one responded, so he knocked on the door and called twice more, but still no one responded. He was confused and was about to open the door and go in.

Then the courtyard door creaked, and a man taller and burlier than him, with a gray beard and a calm and self-respecting man stood in front of the courtyard door.

Meng Zhou looked at the muscular man in front of him, paused for a moment, and then said based on the memory of the original owner: "Third brother, you guys are here."

As he spoke, his eyes scanned the other people behind him.

The muscular man, whom Meng Zhou called Lao San, stepped forward with a smile.

"Brother, we should go patrolling the river today."

Meng Zhou suddenly understood. According to the memory of the original owner, every time he patrolled the river, the original owner would often go with him to have a look. But thinking that they were walking on the water just now, as if they were walking on flat ground, he gave up the thought of committing suicide.

"Okay, you go ahead, I won't go today."

After that, without waiting for the other party's reply, he asked: "Where is your second brother? Why isn't he together?"

Sure enough, the third child's attention was immediately attracted by these words, his eyes evaded, and he stopped talking, leaving no time to think about anything else.

Seeing this, Meng Zhou took the opportunity to wave and said: "Okay, let's go."

The third child turned around and left as if he had received amnesty.

Meng Zhou's heart moved, and he shouted to his back as he walked away quickly: "Third brother, come back to my place tonight."

"……Um."

The third child paused and agreed, and the others also said goodbye to him: "Gang leader, we are going."

The group of people turned around and stepped into the water towards the center of the river, where eight boats were waiting. After they boarded the boats, the eight boats immediately weighed anchor and sailed down the river, quickly disappearing on the river surface.

Standing at the gate of the courtyard, watching the boats go away, Meng Zhou's hanging heart finally slowly fell back into his stomach.

"This first level has been fooled."

Meng Zhou turned back to the house, entered the bedroom, took off a piece of clothing with many blood stains on his chest, and threw it into the fire pit and burned it to ashes.

Then, he filled a basin of water and entered the meditation room.

Even though it was bright outside, the quiet room was extremely dark. Meng Zhou used flint to light the carob lamp, which illuminated the simple furnishings in the room.

There was a lot of blood on the front area of ​​a stone couch and on the floor of the quiet room.

After Meng Zhou dipped the cotton cloth in water, he squatted down and carefully cleaned up the blood stains while sorting out all the information in his mind.

Last night, when his soul had just passed through, he was sitting cross-legged on the stone couch in this quiet room.

The clothes on his chest, the stone couch in front of him and the floor of the quiet room were all stained with blood that he spat out before he died.

After that, it took him several hours to adapt to this body, and at the same time he was also trying to digest the huge and complex memories that were suddenly poured into him.

The original owner of this body has the same name as him, also named Meng Zhou. He is not yet forty years old and is already a famous martial arts master. But he did not stop there. He gave up the fame, wealth and prosperity of the world and embarked on the difficult road of seeking Taoism.

.

Seeking Taoism alone with no one to guide him, after going through a series of hardships and hardships, when a "Secret Technique of the Great Dao" was placed in front of the original owner, he jumped on it without hesitation.

After that, in less than three years, he not only completed the transformation from a warrior to a practitioner, but also made breakthroughs in his cultivation, from the first level of Qi training to the fourth level of Qi training.

This surprised him, thinking that his spiritual talent was as outstanding as his martial arts talent.

But soon, a basin of cold water chilled him to the core.

His cultivation was directly stuck at the fourth level of Qi training. No matter how hard he tried, he could not go any further. The accelerated aging of his body made him feel bad.

He also finally discovered the truth that almost made him vomit blood and die suddenly. The so-called "Secret Technique of the Great Dao" was not a serious practice method at all, but the famous Blood Demon Technique.

Its characteristic is to "dig out" the practitioner's life energy and unused potential as quickly as possible and "squeeze" it into magic power.

He reached the fourth level of Qi training in just three years, but the price was that as a martial arts master in his prime, his potential was exhausted and his Qi and blood were exhausted.

Not only is there no way forward, but at just over 40 years old, he has already entered his twilight years ahead of schedule and is running towards the finish line.

Since its emergence, countless qi-training monks have been abandoned. The most famous one is the "Blood Demon Kung Fu Rebellion" that occurred many years ago in the Qingxuan Sect of the third-order sect.

As a result, the Qi disciples were deposed. In order to minimize the legacy of this skill, Qingxuanzong also racked his brains and thought of many ways.

The original owner regarded these methods as life-saving straws. Unfortunately, as a casual practitioner who had barely entered the middle stage of Qi training, he had no resources and no backers, so there were many methods that he could not use.

The only feasible solution is to switch to a kind of exercise that has the effect of warming and healing. As for the effect, it is related to the quality of the exercise and more to the personal talent.

The original owner spent several years and a lot of effort, and finally got a practice method that barely met the requirements, "Water Nourishing Technique".

Last night, he officially converted to this practice. But at the moment when he successfully converted and the Water Nourishing Technique replaced the Blood Demon Technique as the fundamental technique, he suddenly vomited blood and died suddenly.

After repeatedly reviewing all the events before the death of the original owner, Meng Zhou already had a rough idea and felt extremely emotional in his heart.

"Even if you are a martial arts master, if there is no one to guide you along the way, there will be pitfalls everywhere!"

The problem is neither with the "Water Nourishing Technique" nor the original owner's decision to switch to the practice itself, but rather that he thought too simply about the process of switching to practice.

The Blood Demon Technique is certainly a demonic technique, but he has practiced this technique for many years, and its characteristics have long been firmly rooted in his body. It is like an arrowhead that pierced his heart many years ago. It is of course necessary to take it out.

, but it is by no means as simple as just forcefully pulling it out with tweezers.

How to take it out, what tools to use, how to stop bleeding after taking it out, how to suture it, how to heal... any omission in any link will lead to tragedy. But the original owner just wanted to quickly remove the Blood Demon Kung Fu and switch to a new one.

Didn't realize this at all.

There was no mention of it in the information he inquired about. Perhaps, to Qingxuanzong, this was just basic common sense like "it can be known from this" in the proof question.

As a martial arts master, the original owner was not fettered by worldly fame and wealth, nor was he defeated by mistakenly practicing magic skills, but in the end he was tricked to death by such details, which made Meng Zhou feel sad.

He was not only lamenting for the original owner, but also for himself.

"What I inherited is a mess!"

…

Finally, Meng Zhou checked carefully and confirmed that all the blood stains that the original owner spat out before his death last night had been wiped clean, and then he picked up the basin and left the quiet room.

After clearing these traces, Meng Zhou didn't feel much relaxed, because the biggest flaw was not elsewhere, but himself.

After burning the bloody cotton cloth and pouring the bloody water into the rolling river, Meng Zhou stood on the bank of the river and was lost in thought.

His field of view looked normal, but in the upper left corner, there was a faint portrait outline, which looked like the personal settings icon in some mobile applications.

Because the color was too light, he ignored it at first.

It wasn't until he activated the water nourishment technique that his predecessor had just successfully cultivated. Under the repeated operation of the magic power, the memory of the original owner was completely transformed into his own experience and understanding. The upper right corner of this faint humanoid outline showed a flash of red, like

It was the eye-catching reminder of new news that caught his attention.

At this moment, Meng Zhou stood by the river, staring at the faint portrait icon, and a piece of personal information clearly appeared in his field of vision.

[Name: Meng Zhou]

[Life span: 51/52 years]

[Status: Weak]

[Realm: Qi training level 1: 1/100]

[Exercise: Introduction to Water Nourishing Technique: 5/50]

Recalling the timing of the flashing red dot appearing in his mind, Meng Zhou had some guesses in his mind.

He searched for relevant information about the water-crossing step from the original owner's complex memory bank, and took a step toward the river ahead.

For a martial artist, climbing to the top of water is an important skill. There are many similar martial arts skills, not to mention his predecessor as a martial arts master.

The water-crossing step is a new martial art created by the predecessor after combining various martial arts. It is simple, pure and has a high upper limit. As the creator, the predecessor has the richest experience in mastering it.

But when he took this step, he did not stand on the water as expected. Instead, there was a "pop" sound, and one foot completely sank into the river water.

Meng Zhou was not discouraged by this, and instead showed a look of surprise on his face.

The moment the soles of his feet sank into the water, he clearly felt the support coming from the water.

So, he "played" this seemingly childish game alone by the river, stepping into the river again and again, exiting, stepping in, and exiting again.

During this process, the memory of the water-crossing step obtained from the original master, the martial arts master, was gradually transformed into his own understanding, burned into his heart and body.

At a certain moment, Meng Zhoufu was so moved that the soft water actually lifted him up and made him run on the river, with his feet submerged in the water only below his knees.

He looked at the portrait icon in his field of vision again, and sure enough, there were multiple flashing red dots in the upper right corner.

Meng Zhou was filled with joy: "It's done!"

But because of his distraction, the support provided by the water surface quickly disappeared, and he was completely trapped in the river. When he came ashore, he was wet all over.

After landing, Meng Zhou immediately clicked on the portrait icon.

[Name: Meng Zhou]

[Life span: 51/52 years]

[Status: Weak]
To be continued...